The present invention concerns a functional textile material provided or coated with microcapsules containing an active ingredient, according to the specification and claims, as well as the use thereof to make garments, as well as protective materials of all kinds, and furthermore to make filters and filter materials of all kinds. Moreover, the present invention concerns garments and protective materials, as well as filters and filter materials, which are made using the aforesaid functional textile material.
Currently, active ingredients of all kinds can also be incorporated into textiles. For example, this can be done by the corresponding active ingredients being spun into the fibers. In this way, however, one often achieves only an inadequate concentration of the active ingredient. Moreover, a controlled release is not always assured.
Furthermore, active ingredients can also be introduced, as an alternative, in so-called microcapsules; the purpose of encapsulation is to firmly enclose the active ingredients, so that a certain dosage can be locally achieved. Essentially, there are two different kinds of microcapsules for this purpose, namely, matrix encapsulation on the one hand, and core/shell encapsulation on the other hand. In order to deploy the active ingredients in a specific manner, the microcapsules must be applied to the textiles. This is often achieved today in that the microcapsules are embedded in complex composite materials, which then become part of the textiles. As an alternative, the microcapsules are often introduced into coatings, especially polyurethane coatings, which are then applied over the entire surface of the textiles, so that the textiles lose at least part of their permeability to air and the releasing of the active ingredient cannot always be controlled.
Thus, there has been no shortage of attempts to provide textiles with active ingredients that are released in a controlled manner at a desired time or that deploy their action at a desired time. Thus far, this problem has not been sufficiently solved in the prior art.
It is therefore the problem of the present invention to furnish a functional textile material which at least largely avoids or at least mitigates the previously described drawback of the prior art. In particular, such a textile material should be suitable for diversified uses, in particular, for the making of garments and protective materials of every kind, as well as filters and filter materials of every kind.
In particular, one problem of the invention is to furnish a functional textile material provided or coated with microcapsules containing an active ingredient, which on the one hand has a good breathing activity, especially a good gas- and/or water-vapor permeability, and on the other hand can release or deploy the active ingredients at a desired place and/or at a desired time.
To solve the above-described problems, the present invention proposes a functional textile material. Additional advantageous embodiments of the invented functional textile material are disclosed in the specification and are the subject of the dependent claims.
Another objective of the present invention is the use of the functional textile material according to the present invention, especially for the making of garments, as well as protective materials of every kind, and filters as well as filter materials of every kind.
Finally, another object of the present invention concerns the garments and protective materials, as well as filters and filter materials, made with the functional textile material of the invention.
The object of the present invention is—according to a first aspect of the present invention—therefore a functional textile material, wherein the functional textile material comprises a textile backing, which is provided or coated with microcapsules, wherein the microcapsules contain at least one active ingredient, wherein one of the characteristics of the present invention is to make sure that the microcapsules are secured to the textile backing by means of an adhesive applied discontinuously to the textile backing.
The applicant has surprisingly discovered that a highly flexible, mechanically stable, breathable, especially gas- and/or water vapor-permeable functional textile material can be made by combining the microcapsules containing the active ingredient with the textile backing of the functional textile material via an adhesive applied discontinuously to the textile backing. In this way, it is possible to not only provide a very gas-permeable, in particular, air-permeable and/or water vapor-permeable, i.e., an overall very breathable functional textile material with high mechanical strength, but also thanks to the discontinuous glue application one achieves a considerably reduced basis weight and a much improved flexibility and a distinctly improved wearing comfort when it is made into garments. Thanks to the discontinuous glue application, moreover, only a small portion of the surface of the microcapsules is covered, so that the majority of the surface of the microcapsules is freely available for the release or deployment of the active ingredients (i.e., it is not covered with glue), so that the efficiency of the active ingredient is also considerably augmented thanks to the discontinuous glue application.
Further benefits, properties, aspects and features of the present invention will emerge from the following description of a preferred sample embodiment depicted in the drawing.